Crowded in the Middle of Nowhere is a witty, personable, story-filled journey from a rural country veterinarian. Laugh or cry, this book is a much about people as is about animals. Brock’s stories run the gamut of emotions from laugh out loud screams to lump-in-your throat tears.

The following distributors have Bo's book available Ingram, Baker & Taylor and Readerlink should you wish to order for your bookstore.

Ostrich

He’s never seen an ostrich before but Dr. Bo Brock is called out to treat a female ostrich with a raging infection in her foot. The seven-foot-tall, 350-pound female is in a 3-acre compound with her even taller boyfriend.

Dr. Brock’s assignment: enter the enclosure, chase, catch and wrestle down the giant creature, remove whatever might be stuck in her foot, give her a shot, treat the abscess – and do it all while trying to avoid being attacked by the other bird.

And, no help is coming from the owners who are frightened to death of their own birds.

It’s all in a day’s work for the small town veterinarian.

From Crowded in the Middle of Nowhere by Bo Brock, D.V.M.

Football

“Do you reckon you could meet me at the football game tonight and fix that pig for me?” The silence hangs in the air as Dr. Bo Brock contemplates the request.

Friday nights in the fall can mean only one thing in West Texas – high school football. Six-man football is the name of the game in a town where there are only 42 kids in the entire school.

But when a client calls on a Friday afternoon, asking for help with a prize-winning show hog, and points out the stadium is “about half way between us”. What’s a small town veterinarian to do?

Dr. Brock shows up at the game with his family at 8PM in the freezing cold and pitch-black to find a trailer full of pigs parked in the end zone. “Oh by the way, some neighbors threw in a few more pigs that just need castrating”… and the best light in the county is on the football field.

How could this possibly end well? It will make you smile!

From Crowded in the Middle of Nowhere by Bo Brock, D.V.M.

Spavin

For those that don't know a spavin is a swelling in a horse's hock (the large joint in a horse's back leg) -

There are just some things that can't be taught. You either can do it or you can't and no amount of education is going to prepare you. There are two things you never talk about with a lady, age and weight.

But what are you going to do when you are forced to breach such a touchy issue? Well, remember, education is not the answer.

Find out what Dr. Brock does when faced with the prospect of having to resolve a family crisis which involves one of the two things that are taboo in the eyes of a lady. Perhaps one of the most entertaining short stories ever written. What would you have done?

From Crowded in the Middle of Nowhere by Bo Brock, D.V.M.

Pot Bellied

Have you ever really just stopped and had a look at a pot bellied pig? It is almost as if someone took all the strangest characteristics of every animal on earth and stuck them together on one critter and then called it a pig. It is not really a pig is it? One would have to assume that all the real pigs in the world would make fun of such a creature.

These rascals appear to be built for laying in a mud puddle under a nice shade tree and passing the day living the easy life. There is no way anyone would ever consider the possibility that a pot bellied pig could run fast………oh, but think again.

You will laugh out loud when you read how one veterinarian who assumed he could out run a little fat pig learned different. Just imagine the adventure that might unfold when back yard antics result in “pot bellied pig vs. determined pig doctor”.

From Crowded in the Middle of Nowhere by Bo Brock, D.V.M.

Honking Duck

The complaint is a down cow. The owner won’t be there, but has described in detail where the cow is. The directions say go through the barn, and the cow will be just past the next gate, beyond the water trough.

Animals run loose all over the property as Dr. Bo Brock makes his way into the barn. He comes to an incredible realization: the manure in the barn has built up so much over the years he is stooping over to walk in the dim light. By the time he gets to the middle of the barn, he’s on his hands and knees on the mountain of manure, lugging veterinary supplies.

It’s a hissing, honking male goose coming fast… with a supporting cast of six honking female geese right behind. The questions now: how much of this goose is fluff and how much is really fight?

It’s all in a day’s work for the small town veterinarian. From Crowded in the Middle of Nowhere by Bo Brock, D.V.M.

Boogers

Have you ever stepped into the bathroom and when you glanced in the mirror you saw a glowing, giant booger in you nose? Oh my, you mind wanders back to the last five people you talked to and the burning question of how long that nose monster has been hypnotizing onlookers.

Imagine for a moment what it would be like to have a beaming nose ornament and having no way to remove it. Especially if you were talking to a short person that was looking right up at it. Can you even conceive a situation which would cause a circumstance such as this?

Well it can happen! Find out how in one of the hilarious moments found in Crowded in the Middle of Nowhere by Bo Brock, D.V.M.

Cowboy

Old people have their own way of talking. You know what I speak of, sayings and expressions that have long since expired from the fashionable social verbiage, some how stayed with them in dogmatic fashion. Cowboys seem to be the same. They have a style of talking and a cadence to their tones that is unique to their way.

Imagine what it must be like to hear the voice of an old cowboy heightened by extreme emotion, and continue to imagine what it would be like if his anger was directed at you.

Dr. Brock tells a delightful tale of how hearing the angry words from Skeet the retired cowboy sent chills up his spine. You will feel the anticipation elevate and teeter as to good Dr. faces the wrath of a man three times his age. Be ready to laugh until you cry and spend a few paragraphs on the edge of your seat.

From Crowded in the Middle of Nowhere by Bo Brock, D.V.M.

Through the Eyes of a Horse

The woman told me that it must be tough to work on critters, since they can’t tell you what is wrong. She went on to say, “Don’t you wish they could just talk and tell you what is bothering them?”

I had pondered this many times, so my answer was certainly not spontaneous. The answer was brief: “No.”

My grandmother was sick in Amarillo, Texas, and I was visiting her in the hospital there. I sat in a chair at the foot of her bed for quite a long time, and she had long since dozed off. I listened to the hospital, listened to the people who were occupants of those beds. I spent a long time absorbing their requests, complaints, dislikes, aggravations, hunger pains, bathroom requests, hot and cold needs, and just endless ramblings........

From Crowded in the Middle of Nowhere by Bo Brock, D.V.M.

They Do Listen to Songs

We have three daughters (ages eight, eleven, and thirteen), and I am always amazed at what goes through the minds of children. They see things in their world and store those thoughts to be brought up at the strangest times. We had an episode a few weeks ago that made me reevaluate what kids are really thinking.

A few Fridays ago, the phone rang at about 11:00 p.m. It was Dr. Marty Ivey from Ruidoso, New Mexico, with a horse suffering from colic that appeared to need surgery. Translation: The critter would get to Lamesa around 3:00 a.m. I told him to send it on, and we would be glad to try to make that horse happy again.

The carrier arrived at the expected time and unloaded a very sick racehorse. We got the horse in the stocks, and sure enough, the exam revealed a twisted gut. This is not a good thing if you are a horse. Surgery is about the only option, and sometimes it offers little hope.

After an extensive examination, I told the horse carrier that surgery was going to be the only option.

“This is a very special horse,” the road-weary man muttered. “I sure hope you can fix it.”

Every horse is a really special horse in the eyes of someone. I understand it, and when I hear it, I move on.

“This horse belongs to Toby Keith.” The carrier slurred the words from exhaustion, but the message was sharp enough. I started feeling pressure.

I could just visualize a video starring me, with a stupid look on my face, plastered all over Country Music Television. Mr. Keith tells the interviewer: “Yeah, that’s him. He’s that vet from Lamesa, Texas, who killed my prize racehorse.” Worse yet, I might become the brunt of some country song that Willie Nelson and Toby write about “the redneck vet from West Texas.” What if it became a hit and lived on for generations?